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50 years after the big victory: Rauno Aaltonen lines up at the start driving the classic Mini in the Monte Carlo Rally Historique 2017.

Mon Jan 30 15:34:00 CET 2017 Press Release

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The Finnish “Rally Professor” is once again leading the field in the 20th edition of the legendary competition. He will be racing through France’s Maritime Alps on the trail of his spectacular triumph in 1967.

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Images of the event will be available from January 28th on the BMW Group Classic Mediaserver: http://www.bmwgroupclassic-downloads.com/ login: bmwgroup password: classic

Munich/Monte Carlo. The winning car seemed to be
absolutely minute, but the cheering was epic. Relief, pride, and a
certain amount of satisfaction mingled with enthusiasm when Finnish
driver Rauno Aaltonen steered a BMW Competition Departement Mini
Cooper S across the finishing line as overall winner of the 36th Monte
Carlo Rally on 20 January back in 1967. This was already the Mini’s
third triumph in Monaco after the victories in 1964 and 1965. Yet the
win also had particularly symbolic power. The year before, the driver
of the little British car believed it had secured a win for the third
race in succession but the Mini was then disqualified by the race
officials in a decision that drivers and fans alike still find
difficult to comprehend even today. The empathy felt by the race-going
spectators for the David in the field of high-powered Goliaths
actually increased as a result of this outcome. And thanks to
Aaltonen’s driving skills, the classic Mini had now delivered the
appropriate riposte.

Up until today, the three title wins gained in the Monte Carlo Rally
have defined the quintessential sporting cachet enjoyed by the brand.
These successes were highlighted at the production anniversary held at
the MINI plant in Oxford and at the debut of the new
MINI John Cooper Works Countryman. And even the MINI John Cooper Works
Rally developed for the Dakar Rally – the ultimate endurance test in
the modern world – continues to reflect the glory of the three-times
“Monte” winner. The fascination remains unbroken and this continues to
be the case on the 50th anniversary of the victory that
ultimately transformed the classic Mini into a motor-sport legend.

Rauno Aaltonen has decided to celebrate the anniversary in a way dear
to his own heart. He will be getting into the cockpit of a classic
Mini, taking on the hardships of a drive to Monaco over a distance of
nearly 1 250 kilometres, and steering the diminutive British car up
and down the steep mountain roads through France’s Maritime Alps,
looking for the perfect braking point on icy surfaces. This is where
average drivers in modern cars today can’t even identify the second or
third best braking point. In short, just a few weeks after his
79th birthday, Aaltonon will be competing in the Monte
Carlo Rally Historique 2017. And he muses out loud as to how great it
would be if he were to win the race again, 50 years after his great
triumph, and stand once more on the winners’ podium at Port Hercule in Monaco.

The classic Mini is ready to go, the team is in the starting
blocks and the “road book” is complete.

Aaltonen’s sporting ambition has also captured the imagination of BMW
Group Classic. It is sending a special MINI CLASSIC Rallye Team along
to line up at the start of the 20th edition of the
traditional competition and relive the glory days of the “Monte” in
the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The team has prepared the ideal car for
the Finnish driver – a Mini Cooper S that already competed in the
Monte Carlo Rally in 1965 and has now been completely rebuilt by
Swedish company Söderqvist Engineering. They have brought it up to
competition standard. CEO of the company Hans-Åke Söderqvist and his
son are part of the service team, alongside Swedish driver Stig
Blomqvist, Rally World Champion in 1984, and Phil Anning from British
company Swiftune Engineering, which has been involved in the
development and production of racing engines for the classic Mini for
more than 50 years. Ten sets of spiked wheels will be in the baggage.
They were specially produced in Finland for the 10 inch wheels of the
classic Mini and then painstakingly finished by hand.

Like the team and the classic Mini, Aaltonen has also made meticulous
preparations. In December, the Finnish driver surveyed the entire
route in a brand new MINI Cooper S Clubman in order to write a
complete “road book”. The memories of the winning drive back in 1967
came flooding back with every curve and on each climb. But a seasoned
old hand is not going to rely on memories alone. His meticulous
approach earned him the nickname of “Rally Professor” all those
decades ago, and he recorded all the important details about the
route. Aaltonen also has an experienced co-driver at his side. Hans
Sylvan (72) from Sweden took on the role of co-driver looking after
navigation and timing. Sylvan has also competed in the “Monte” several
times and he enjoyed a successful career over many years with Stig Blomqvist.

From Bad Homburg to Monaco – and that is just the warm-up.

The “Monte” has been hailed as the most spectacular and toughest
racing competition of its kind for decades. There are innumerable
legendary tales about the marathon stages at the start of the race,
icy roads over mountain passes, snow storms coming out of nowhere and
the “Night of the Long Knives” at the high mountain pass Col de
Turini. In 1998, the organisers at the Automobile Club de Monaco
created a new edition for historic automobiles to celebrate the
legendary status of the event. The rally is always held some two weeks
after the actual race and emulates the original rally with the first
leg held as a star rally. This year, seven European cities serve as
star points. On Friday 27 January 2017, Aaltonen and Sylvan will start
off in Bad Homberg on the route to Monaco. There they will drive the
first leg to Valence. The race then continues with a round trip and
return to Monte Carlo, followed by the final night drive on 31 January.

Only vehicles of the type that were able to line up at the start of
the Monte Carlo Rally between 1955 and 1980 are permitted to take
part. There are no such restrictions for the drivers. However,
relevant experience of the rally is not likely to be a disadvantage.
Nevertheless, nobody in the current field of starters can possibly
have enjoyed such a wealth of intensive, diverse and ultimately also
successful knowledge of the “Monte” as Rauno Aaltonen.

The passionate start was followed by a class victory.

At the end of 1961, the Finn has just become national rally champion
in his home country and he was then on the look-out for a vehicle to
take on the challenge of the “Monte”. He struck lucky with the works
team of the British Motor Corporation. Aaltonen debuted together with
the Mini Cooper, which proved to be extremely competitive from the
outset in contrast to the less powerful previous model. However, the
promising liaison almost came to a tragic end. Three kilometres before
the finishing line, the car was in second place when it came off the
road, turned a somersault and then went up in flames. Aaltonen and his
co-driver Geoff Mabbs were able to get out of the car at the last
minute. After this dramatic opening gambit, Aaltonen returned to line
up at the start driving the Mini Cooper in 1963. This time he finished
the Monte Carlo Rally as class winner and third in the overall placings.

In the following year, the Irish driver Paddy Hopkirk drove the
classic Mini to its first overall victory. Aaltonen achieved seventh
place. The era of the “Three Musketeers” started at the “Monte” in
1964 – Aaltonen and Hopkirk were joined by Finnish driver Timo Mäkinen
to make up the trio. In 1965, Mäkinen achieved the second overall
victory in the classic Mini in a drive without earning any penalty
points, while his fellow countryman was not included in the placings
after he had to take time out. This was an unsatisfactory start to the
year for Aaltonen, although he succeeded once more in taking the
national champion’s title in Finland and went on to achieve overall
victory in the European Rally Championship.

Successful trio: The “Three Musketeers”.

The “Three Musketeers” had their strongest outing at the Monte Carlo
Rally in 1966. Timo Mäkinen, Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk
dominated the race right from the start. At the end of the race, they
were ranked one to three in that order for the overall placings. But
the joy of a hat trick for the classic Mini was exceptionally brief.
The trio of drivers was subsequently disqualified because of lights
that were supposedly not in compliance with the official regulations
according to the French race officials.

One year later, the consternation about this decision had melded into
steadfast determination. 1967 sounded the hour of the third
“Musketeer” in the Monte Carlo Rally. Altonen and his co-driver Henry
Liddon, who had previously been in the winning car alongside Paddy
Hopkirk in 1964, were the fastest pair of the BMC Team and they were
in a very promising position at the start of the “Night of the Long
Knives”. The race was decided on the Col de Turini in driving snow.
And as Aaltonen was to relate only many years later, fast cornering
almost brought about the same outcome as at his “Monte” debut five
years earlier. This was because the Mini Cooper S accidentally took
off when the descent down the mountain became too adventurous. The car
then crashed through the undergrowth and to the surprise of the crew
they suddenly found themselves back on the road again. Aaltonen and
Liddon took a deep breath and drove the car to a successful finish.

Rauno Altonen wants to take a more measured approach to racing in the
new edition of the race 50 years later. The Monte Carlo Rally
Historique is being staged as a reliability rally. This means that low
speeds and excessively high speeds can be punished with penalty
points. Aaltonen and Sylvan are also starting the race in the class of
“Low Average Speed”. They are therefore relying on routine and
precision. And they are looking for victory, as a very special detail
indicates. Their classic Mini bears the start number 177. This is the
exact sequence of figures that became a lucky number for the winning
car in 1967.